Shareholder democracy" in widely-held public corporations means, in practice: directors and officers of a corporation do not have much influence over how a corporation conducts itself because the shareholders exercise direct and frequent control over the management of the corporation shareholders can vote at their annual meetings on the day-to-day policies and practices of the corporation O (1) shareholder activists who are not satisfied can nominate directors who, if elected by shareholders, will change how the corporation conducts itself, and (2) third parties can offer to buy a majority of a corporation's shares and, if successful, can take over and control the operation of the corporation. anyone over the age of 18 who registers can vote at shareholder meetings, whether or not they own shares of the corporation